


Cats Are Nice

by lynndyre



Category: Star Ocean: The Last Hope
Genre: Catboys & Catgirls, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Post-Game(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-16
Updated: 2011-03-16
Packaged: 2017-11-08 18:38:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/446267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lynndyre/pseuds/lynndyre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Death thought about it. "Cats," he said eventually, "Cats are Nice."</i><br/>-- Terry Pratchett, Sourcery </p>
<p>Post-game, Meracle looks for answers.  Arumat doesn't have them, but it's possible he can help anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cats Are Nice

Meracle slunk around the corner of the building, sidling closer and closer as though Arumat couldn't clearly see her coming. 

"What do you want?"

Meracle meeped, and her tail twitched around her ankles. "Nothing!" She slid closer, bare toes inching across the grass. "But it's all weird inside so I thought I'd go back to the Centropolis, only I didn't really want to be alone, and you're out here. So I can sit with you, right?"

By now she was crouched down beside him, eyes as large and catlike and entreating as she could possibly manage. "If you must." He can at least understand the desire not to be upstairs. Edge and Faize have been holed up together more of the time than not, with Reimi and Lymle hovering in orbit around them. There has been less relief of tension than Arumat thinks any of them expected.

"Do you think we're allowed to be mad at Faize?"

He twitched as Meracle wrapped herself around his biceps, and refused to uncross his arms. "What-"

"Lymle says it's okay because he stopped and came back, and Sarah says she's just happy as long as everyone's okay now, but he was our friend and then he stopped liking us and tried to kill everyone in the universe, and nobody will tell me why." 

Her ears were drooping, and her tail was entirely flat. Reluctantly, Arumat unfolded his arms, leaving her enough space to crawl between his arm and his chest. "I don't know. But you can ask him later." She was small and very warm and faintly furry. 

And rarely quiet for long.

"Why do we have to split up? Why are Edge and Reimi trying to hide Faize? Why can't we keep exploring?"

"We have no ship."

"Oh. Yeah." She sighed with her whole body, and her tail went back and forth in the grass in his peripheral vision. Thwip, thwip, thwip. "I like Sarah. But I don't want to go back to Roak and have to live with the fake Eleyna. And I don't want Lymle to be on another planet. And I don't want Edge and Reimi and Faize to leave us behind." She inhaled against his vest, and Arumat was suddenly very afraid she would start crying. "Everyone is going home, but I haven't got one."

There was no answer for that. Arumat had looked. "...Be small." She blinked at him, but he refused to think too hard. "You can be a cat. Do that now." She moved to pull away, but he shifted his grip. "Here."

And then his lap was full of seal-pointed feline - even smaller, just as warm, and much more fur. He picked her up and she hung between his hands, limp and confused and trusting. He pulled at the tie that held the lacings of his vest, until they came undone. When he lifted her and crossed his arms again, she was held against his chest.

"No more words." 

She planted both her front paws on his chest and leaned back to mew at him, ears happy and pointed. He huffed, and pressed down on her head, until she twisted sideways and nuzzled it inside his vest, where her whiskers tickled his skin. 

He shifted his arm supporting her, and Meracle kneaded tiny claws into his forearm and began to purr.


End file.
